Review

Believe it or not, you've probably covered half of VBScript's functions in this chapter. That alone should help you realize how important string manipulation is, and may explain the spinning feeling in your head right now! Don't worry-string manipulation, like everything else involved in scripting, becomes easier with practice.

For now, keep in mind the basic functions for working with substrings, such as Right(), Left(), Mid(), and InStr(). String concatenation using the & operator is also important, as is the ability to change strings with functions like Replace(). Finally, string conversion functions-especially CStr()-can help make your scripts less error-prone, while enabling you to work with a broad variety of data.

Your string manipulation skills will serve you well in other areas of VBScript, such as date and time manipulation, Active Directory querying, Windows Management Instrumentation, and more.

COMING UP

In the next chapter, I'll explore other types of data, such as dates and times, bytes, and a couple of others, that you might find in your scripts. Then, in Chapter 10, I'll look at adding logic to your scripts with control-of-flow statements.